It’s a beautiful morning in Wiesbaden, Germany and we have been invited by our
good friend, Frederic Hanner for what should be a magnificent day of driven
wild boar hunting. Frederick gives the morning briefing outlining what game can
be taken and what must be left. This is a management hunt that has taken a year of
careful planning and it is down to the guns to correctly identify the species,
age and gender before taking their shots. With almost 100 people roaming the
forest throughout the hunt, safety is of paramount importance. Responsible rifle
handling must be adopted at all times and a clear and safe backstop must be
present before any shot is taken. High visibility clothing is worn by the
beaters, dogs and guns to make them stand out against the forest backdrop to avoid
roe does and kids, any wild boar
other than leading sows, foxes and raccoons. Some roebucks may have already
shed their antlers at this time of year and large wild boar sales can be
difficult to identify in the heat at the moment. The rule is if in doubt, don't
shoot. This incredible occasion brings together people from all walks of life,
but at its heart is a critical forestry management responsibility, maintaining
the delicate balance of nature. After the morning briefing is concluded
we head out to our pegs.
So here we are, we are driven wild boar shooting in Germany as guests of Frederic Hanner from Blaser.
Today we can shoot all wild boar apart from the leading sows. Roe kids,
foxes and raccoons, they're all on the menu for today. As we got into the highseat
just, we bumped a fox up that was just below us on this trail, so hopefully
that'll bode well for later on when the beaters start moving the pigs about but
we've just got here so very excited about today. This may be me probably my one
and only trip out the country this year so super super excited. The weather is
absolutely fantastic just fingers crossed
we can bump into some pigs. That's a shot behind us, so things are starting to move.
What a morning that has been. It's 12 o'clock now so we're about halfway through the
drive some of the beaters have come through below us, there's still some here
more to our right-hand side but at the minute I've shot at five wild boar, I've shot four
I think I shot in front of the one that I missed and I also had a long shot
at a fox and I did miss that but what a morning so I've got four on the
ground definitely here the first one came here came into this clear in
here and then he snuck off background tried to come behind us and as he cross
the ride I shot him and he's just behind that tree and then there was a sounder
that came and he could hear the shots ringing out down the valley boom boom
boom boom eventually he came to us the first one bump until the second one bump
which I think was a bigger male rolled them both in the bushes here just on the
side and then we're stood just watching listening and one came trotting up here
tried to make a bolt across the ride again going back in the opposite
direction towards the beaters and one shot that one there just behind that
tree so it's been very very exciting very good very good.
Well as you know we've been we've been all over Europe wild boar hunting and this
is the most successful drive I've ever had it's it's really really exciting. You
can hear the dogs and pigs and we've seen plenty of deer as well we've seen two
roe doe's one had two followers but they were skylined so we didn't we didn't
even raise the rifle to them and we just had a roebuck come trotting past us here.
Yeah, we've seen lots and lots of game all in all it's been an absolutely
fantastic morning and we're looking forward to the rest of the day and see
what that brings our way.
Okay so the beaters have just come through the line we've accounted for
four of the wild boar and they think they've got the blood trail of the top
one where I said I'd missed it thought I'd shot in front of it well he
said there's a really good sign so they could pick that one up back in there as
well so waiting for the other half of the drive to start now they've gone past us
so they'll be bringing the forest back towards us so hopefully we'll get some
more shooting.
Okay, so times up, it's two o'clock in the afternoon now
which is the witching hour if you like we've all got to stop at two so that's
the end of it for today. What a fantastic day it's been, it's been the best days
wild boar hunting I've ever had, it was absolutely spectacular this morning. I've
got five down a nice young Keiler down in the bottom there it's been absolutely
fantastic. I'm gonna get all the game back now to the table and pay our
respects.
Fantastic yeah really good, really good.
So it would appear that you've had a quite an exciting day then? Well you
could say that yeah, it's been absolutely fantastic mate. One of the best days I
think I've had hunting for a long time. We've got to go back to Alaska to top
what we've done today. Really that good? I had a fantastic day. Talk me through
what's happened that. Well you know we've been out before wild boar hunting haven't we
and things haven't gone quite to plan at times and it's been a little frustrating,
well today was completely the opposite it was brilliant from start to finish. It
was fantastic and we've seen so much game we've seen Robucks we've seen Roe Doe deer,
we've seen kids, we've seen foxes and of course we saw five wild boar that
nobody else will be seeing again so that was that was brilliant we had a sounder
come through so that was really exciting. I shot three out of it
brilliant I can't tell you how good it's been. Good so as long as you left the
lead female which is good oh she was gone before I could move that is a great
thing about shooting in a ride is often the lead female goes through and she's
notified you that the pigs are coming but you're not going to shoot her and
then you took three out of that sounder. Three out of that yeah so proper wild
boar fever type action then? Yeah as good as it is on the film's it really was
good. I've actually heard that the quality of shooting was very good as
well? Apparently so I don't know what happened there crikey. Because I've
actually seen you shooting at the shooting center before and you've got
some measure of success but that's another story and I have but yeah
no it's brilliant. It's great isn't it when not only have you got the
excitement to the animals coming through you've got that proper you know a sounder
that's coming through charging and the multiple shots, one, two three. Tell me a little
bit about the excitement. Well you could hear the wild boar coming down the valley it was
like boom in the distance and there was boom boom closer and then boom boom boom
closer and then you could hear them coming on the beach leaves and yeah and
then yep they're in boom boom boom yeah the Blaser was brilliant for it. yeah yeah
straight in really super fast. What magnification did you have the scope on?
I'll have to go out and get it out and have a look, I couldn't tell you I wasn't
interested in it. You know a little bit of a problem earlier on I because I took
a roe kid 25 yards by the time I pasted out and I
cranked the mag what I thought was up to four mag and I cranked it down to one mag
so it disappeared behind the mill dot. This must be miles away this tiny little thing but actually
went down very pleased about that and they've got a frishling that was about
25 yards away back in the headshot. Perfect. Not quite as excited to you.
No, we were very excited. Tell me a little bit about the Keiler that came through then
as well? Well he was he was at the back of the sounder and I shot two freshlings
out of the middle, bump bump and then I could see I saw him come and I pulled
off the other one and boshed him he rolled just past the ride and it went
again and I thought noo but he'd only gone I should think another 15 yards when the blood
was everywhere it hit him smack on perfect and he just rolled down
into where I couldn't see him so as soon as Freddie came through with the beaters,
I said I've shot him and he's rolled and he's gone and he's getting his white
thing, no he's here it is perfect. It was fantastic yeah I guess really good good.
tNow have you got the taste for it now? Have you got the fever for want of a better description? Yeah, I
had it before when we didn't shoot anything you know and keep coming back
and hoping don't yeah and today has just been how it should be. And that is it
that's a great thing if you keep coming out hunting, eventually you're gonna get
lucky. It's hunting, it's hunting not killing isn't it. That's what
we do it for. Well mate congratulations! Thank you brilliant brilliant thank you. Lets do it all again.